


Yours, Mine, Ours

by TheOriginalSuki



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-18 00:06:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19965454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOriginalSuki/pseuds/TheOriginalSuki
Summary: Jamie had never before not been able to make nice with a brilliant smile and a bit of charm.  He needed something arresting.  Something to show her that it wasn't just a silly whim to him, their marriage.  He was in it for good.  So, he panicked.  He brought home their first foster kid.





	Yours, Mine, Ours

**Author's Note:**

> So I'm not as used to writing these two, but I love their dynamic. If you have any suggestions for getting their characterisations down better, I'm all ears.

The Lannister-Tarths' was a later-in-life love story. Jamie had wasted the better part of his youth on an unhealthy relationship, and Brienne had all but sworn off men since the days she growth-spurted into an awkward teenager. Experience taught her that they couldn't handle someone stronger than them. And she wasn't wrong. 

They met when Jamie showed up at a mutual gala. He was putting in the hours for publicity, for some children's charity, and she was there as a representative of the social workers who dealt with counselling and housing troubled youth. Needless to say, Jamie layered on the shallow charm and Brienne was way out of her element, already loathing having to perform for the over-privileged masses, oozing vibes of subtle antagonism. It was the worst possible first meeting.

She and Jamie couldn't stand one other. Brienne was not a beauty; and she didn't _need_ him. This made her virtually worthless in Jamie's regard. If a woman wasn't a damsel in distress or otherwise possessing of the feminine virtues, he didn't know how to act around her. She also made it pretty clear that she didn't like _him_. For her part, Brienne thought he was a faithless, dim, pretty boy. Fortunately for them, first impressions die (albeit slowly).

Some invisible force kept Jamie coming back into her orbit. In his world things were manufactured and bright, glaring like a noon-day headache. Her quiet coolness was an oasis in his materialist desert. Jamie liked novelties. He was curious by nature. He liked to test her, prod her, and see how she reacted. So he took a special interest in her work and her projects. He spoke with his father about donating a considerable sum to help her set up a non-profit charity to teach reading to children. Pretty soon, they were seeing each other regularly. Together they did a lot of good and made a formidable and effective team.

During their work together, Brienne caught glimpses of the Jamie beneath the facade of socially constructed _it man_. The way he handled the children, with humor and affection. He didn't belittle their tiny wants and dreams. He didn't recoil from their grubby touch. When a little girl curled up close to him and leaned in his chest he didn't shut her down. He was all too willing to act a fool just to get a smile, which was insufferable when he it came to her, not so much when she saw him do it for the children.

Ultimately, Brienne couldn't ignore Jamie's selflessness when it came down to what mattered. His infuriating humility made his false preening all the more endearing. (Though she'd rather stick hot pokers in her than say that out loud.) A truly virtuous man -- even a damaged one -- was rare as a unicorn. And Jamie couldn't forget her drive and her passion, the way it flared in her chest and cheeks, painting her more alive than any living thing. (How could he have ever considered her ugly?)

They got married one day on a dare; Jamie said she wouldn't ever marry because she was afraid. It was as good as proposing. He knew exactly what he was doing. When he had her in bed afterwards, he admitted as much. Which earned him a punch in the arm and a youthful blush. 

She ignored him for a straight week afterwards; but eventually she wore down under his constant texts and phone calls asking her when she was going to move her things in. The nail in the coffin was when he showed up to her place of work and embarrassed her thoroughly in front of everyone, smothering her with public displays of affection, even while she stood there like a sunburned mannequin.

He bent over her where she sat at her desk and put his mouth to the sensitive place behind her ear. He could feel her tense and coil up like a spring. Catapulting from her rolling office chair, she dragged him into the nearest private room -- which happened to be the restroom.

"You _are_ eager."

"Promise me you won't show up here and ... do _that_... again."

"I promise if you give me a date for when you're moving in." He shook out his golden hair in a very calculated parody of a stallion. She rolled her eyes hard. "You're my wife, I shouldn't think it's a very hard request."

She glared. She'd be there on Saturday.

It was natural they moved to Jamie's; he had the space and the means. As a Lannister he was heir to quite a large estate. But Brienne was no kept woman. She accepted paid help with the housekeeping only because she refused to clean up after Jamie, which was wise enough. She kept on the cook because she didn't like to terminate a person's employment. But she cut down significantly on the amount of parties and spending Jamie indulged in. He made out like he hated it but if he could coax her away from her recreational swimming and her reading to kids at the library and her extra cases taken on at work, into bed for half a morning, it was well worth the sacrifice. For all the bluster and competence with which she moved through the world outside of the bedroom, she was insecure and endearing when he tried to show her how desirable she was to him.

After one fumbling night, she threw off the covers in frustration, sitting up with her legs over the side of the bed. "I'm clumsy and all angles and -- just, a shapeless -- _monster_." He'd never heard her refer to herself in such a way; he wanted to murder whoever made her think of herself as such. It took him half a second to remember that he had once been such a person.

"You're not." Jamie sat up. He put his chin over her shoulder and she turned her face away, eyelids fluttering. "Believe me, you are very much a woman." The soft fall of his voice raised goosebumps on the flesh of her neck. It was alien to hear him serious; it was dangerous. As long as Jamie was ridiculous and joking, she could push back with her schooled exasperation. When he spoke plainly to her, she felt naked in the broad light of day. That's what Jamie's uncensored gaze was: the sun burning away all her subterfuge and making her stand out, seen, in stark light and shadow.

***

Their first fight rattled him. Their first, true fight, and not a squabble or an exasperated disagreement. 

Jamie had never before not been able to make nice with a brilliant smile and a bit of charm. He needed something arresting. Something to show her that it wasn't just a silly whim to him, their marriage. He was in it for good. So, he panicked. He brought home their first foster kid.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my trash fic and I have no idea where and how I'm going on with it. So you know, if you like it ... commenting is magic.


End file.
